A Prince in Remnant
by Red-Shery
Summary: With the destruction of Planet Vegeta at hand, a King is forced into sending is offspring to an unknown world. A world where there is a constant struggle between the forces of light and darkness. Which side will our Prince find himself on?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1:** A King's Decision

**Disclaimer:** There is no real need for any. The purpose this story should be apparent and is written for the enjoyment of everyone.

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The last time King Vegeta looked at his progeny, he had been filled with an overwhelming sense of regret and pride. Regret because his son's life would be altered for the worse, and pride because of the warrior he had grown into at such a young age.

Prince Vegeta seemed to have been born for this purpose, displaying a warrior's instinct that was unfathomable for someone who had not even yet matured as a fighter. However, he had many years to go before he could reach his true potential, and King Vegeta thought grimly to himself that maybe it was his destiny to ensure that his son survived long enough to reach that point.

Ever since the Saiyan race had come under the servitude of Lord Frieza, King Vegeta knew it was only a matter of time before the Arcosian prince decided that they were expendable. Saiyans with their lust for battle along with their gift for enhancing their battle prowess after every fight were bound to become a thorn in the tyrant's backside eventually. With Frieza being as clever as he was, it was inconceivable that he not made plans for the day when he no longer required the Saiyan's services.

With the weight of these thoughts swirling around in his head, King Vegeta realizes that he has only one course of action left to take. The decision made, he sends word to summon his most trusted aide and commander of the Saiyan army, Nappa, to his side. Almost immediately, the Saiyan commander walks into throne room cautiously not knowing why his King had decided to call for him at this late hour.

"My King how may I serve you at this time", Nappa asks. King Vegeta glances outside the huge windows of his throne room. "Tell me Nappa what do you see when you look outside?"

Nappa not knowing if this was one the King's usual attempts at playing mind-games answers hesitantly, "I don't know my King what I am supposed to see". The King snorts before replying, "Only what is before your eyes my obtuse friend, which in this case happens to be our day of reckoning."

"My King I apologize I am unable to understand the meaning behind your words. To what is it that you are referring to?"

The King finally steals his gaze away from the view outside and looks at Nappa, who is shocked to see the King's eyes burning with rage. "My King is everything alright?" questions Nappa.

King Vegeta laughs, "you fool we are all in danger at this very moment. Or have you forgotten who has been hovering above our planet for these past three days." Nappa stares at the King before realizing whom King Vegeta is referring too. "Oh my apologise sire, you must be referring to Freiza. However, why did you say that our day of reckoning has arrived and what does that have to do with Frieza. He is only waiting for all the Saiyans to return from their missions so that he can address all of us in person. Right?"

"How big of fool do you need to be Nappa. You know how much the Arcosian hates our kind. Do you really think that he would travel half way across the universe just to come here and give us an inspirational speech. He could have asked any one of his minions to that for him or better yet he could have done so through those damn scouters he forces us to wear at all times", the King exclaimed. "And if it was a visit of paramount importance then he would have already come down here, given us our orders, threatened us if we disobeyed or failed him, and left immediately."

Nappa's brows tensed as he digested the meaning behind the King's words. Not being one for these types of mind-games, he is unable to come up with a suitable response to the King's dilemma. Therefore, he opts for the simple response, "Sire, so what would you have me do at this time?"

King Vegeta sighs knowing that he had unjustly taken out his frustrations on someone who does not deserve it. "What I need is for you to do this one last favour for me, my trusted friend. Take the Prince, put him in one of our space pods and send him far away from here. I fear that our time on this planet is coming to an end." Nappa looks as if he is about to object, but the King interjects him before he can say anything "I know you will have some reservations but this needs to be done. Just do as your King commands you." The solider in Nappa immediately falls in line with the King's orders, however with one question remaining on his tongue, "my King you will not go with him or do you mean for me to do so?"

"I cannot and neither can you. Our power levels are too high for us to escape unnoticed. These damn scouters are able to read to pick up a person's power level from miles away and you can be sure that the personnel on Frieza's ships will be equipped with them. So the only one who can pass undetected through Frieza's blockade is someone whose power is yet still too low to be tracked through these devices."

Nappa defers to King Vegeta's logic. "I shall give you some time then my King to say your farewells to your son."

"No need I have already said what I needed to say to him. Not that he seemed to care an iota the little shit," the King said fondly. "In the meantime Ill create a distraction so that you have time to jettison the boy off into space without anyone noticing." As Nappa turns to leave, King Vegeta shares his final parting words with him "this is goodbye my trusted friend, it has been an honor to serve with you." "I hope to see you in the afterlife as equals without any titles or ranks to get in the way," and with that King Vegeta gestures to Nappa to leave.

Nappa feeling his sense of respect for King Vegeta grow even greater, gives a quick bow before running off towards the Prince's room. Nappa barges in and finds Prince Vegeta sitting on the floor meditating with his Ki flaring around him. He has already gained a healthy level of control over his Ki thought Nappa to himself. However, with time being of the essence, he pushes these thoughts aside and yells at the Prince to follow him, as he needs to evacuate due to an emergency.

Prince Vegeta opens his eyes and smirks at Nappa as if he did not care for any type of emergency but surprisingly still follows Nappa outside. "Is this Father's doing" Vegeta drawls.

"Yes he means for you to escape this planet so I need you obey my directions. You understand?"

Vegeta looks scornfully at Nappa, "if it means being rid of this boring place and that bald-ass head of yours then by all means lead the way." Nappa swears silently to himself, as he does not have time for a rebuttal but is still pleased that the Prince has agreed to come with him.

They arrive to an abandoned landing/take-off strip. "Huh I wonder where everyone went to," Nappa thinks to himself. Just then, he feels a burst of Ki shatter his senses and he starts to look around for where the energy originated.

Not seeing anything on the ground, he looks up at the sky and sees a large Saiyan contingent flying towards the exosphere of the planet. Nappa makes out King Vegeta, while the other Saiyans accompanying him were the most powerful combatants in the Saiyan army. Comprehending the seriousness of the situation, Nappa immediately sets off to find a space pod that would take Prince Vegeta off this planet. Space pods came in various sizes as the purpose of the smaller-sized pods is for transporting infiltration babies (low-level warriors) to planets selected by the Saiyans for take-over, which in this case would be the perfect fit for Prince Vegeta.

Sensing that Prince Vegeta is not in the same location as where he had left him, Nappa starts to feel slightly frantic until he sees him standing somewhat further ahead next to a small-sized space pod which had been fortunately left intact.

"That was my Father's Ki was it not," Prince Vegeta says to Nappa when the taller Saiyan lands beside him.

Not knowing what he should tell the boy, Nappa struggles with his words until the Prince cuts him off, "don't bother I can already guess as to what my Father has in mind, so lets not waste any more off this opportunity that his bravado has created for us." Nappa remembering the earlier scene where the King had interjected him in a similar manner cannot help but see the resemblance between the young Prince and his Father. Although the Prince could be a bit more diplomatic in his speech, Nappa fumed to himself.

"You are correct my Prince in your assessment, so instead of lecturing me why don't you get inside of that pod so that we can get this show on the road" said Nappa while using one of his favorite idioms.

The Prince somewhat shocked at his subordinate's breach of etiquette, gets in wordlessly into the pod while Nappa sets about searching for a planet to lock into the pod's navigational system. After finally finding a world suitable for the Prince to remain safe on for a while, Nappa quickly logs in the relevant coordinates while ensuring that pod's central computer has also completed its pre-flight safety checks. Satisfied that all systems are go, Nappa spares a final glance at his Prince before closing pod's door from the outside. The space pod's computer gets to work as it induces its sole occupant into a statis-like state for the journey ahead. Nappa backs away a few feet as the space pod's computer having completed its final checks begins its countdown before take-off.

A glowing energy aura surrounds the space pod and upon reaching the end of the countdown, it launches itself into the upper atmosphere leaving an energy tail in its wake similar to that of a comet. Nappa watches as the space pod flies off carrying with it the hopes of an entire species. Seeing that he has fulfilled his duty, Nappa begins to fly in the direction where he last saw his King going until he stops in his tracks midflight due to appearance of the largest ball of energy that he has ever seen in his life. A fiery ball of energy seems to be approaching the planet as it engulfs his entire field of vision so that whichever way Nappa looked it seemed as if the sky was itself on fire.

"That has to be largest Ki blast I have ever seen in my life" Nappa could only wonder in horror as to who was the creator of such menacing magnitude of Ki. Before he can contemplate his next course of action, Nappa sees a purple color Ki blast hurtling towards the fiery ball of energy. Nappa immediately identifies whose energy that belongs to and simultaneously re-doubles his efforts to reach the King in time. While speeding towards his destination he sees other energy blasts shoot upwards and can only surmise that the Saiyan contingent he had seen earlier is attempting to halt the progression of the fiery energy ball. However, despite their attempts the energy ball keeps on continuing along its path. Nappa unleashes more of his Ki in a bid to boost his speed, while also starting to feel weak from the heat radiating from the energy ball the closer he gets.

He can finally make out King Vegeta and the other Saiyan forces around him. Even from this distance, Nappa can tell that almost everyone has exhausted their Ki, save for a few remaining Saiyans including King Vegeta who are valiantly continuing their push against this unstoppable force. Nappa pleads to anyone listening that he be able to make it in time so that he even if they fail he would be able to die alongside his King in combat. However, no one answers his prayers and Nappa can only watch in dismay as the energy ball incinerates all of his comrades' one after the other.

Hearing his comrade's dying screams, Nappa feels tears begin to swell up in his eyes. He angrily wipes them away and gathers his courage so that he can go down swinging _(another one of his favourite idioms)_ just like his dead comrades. Yelling several profanities Nappa lets loose a torrent of Ki blasts, and continues his onslaught until he is suddenly aware that he can no longer feel his arms. Looking down he sees that he has burnt through the flesh on his hands. Instead of screaming in pain, Nappa begins to laugh like a maniac. The energy ball has reached close enough now that Nappa could almost kiss it if he dared to lean in a bit further.

Before disintegrating, an image of a grown-up Prince Vegeta pops up in Nappa's head except that the Prince had blonde hair and teal colored eyes. Somehow, this image brings a sense of comfort and relief to Nappa as he passes away into nothingness.

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The minute the energy ball reached the core, Planet Vegeta exploded into a series of brilliant white lights as the shockwaves generated from the explosion sent debris hurtling in every direction. Frieza watches on smugly at Planet Vegeta's annihilation. It had been so simple he had no idea why he had not done it sooner. Sure, the monkeys may have had their uses but he could not live with the anxiety of knowing that someday they might grow too powerful for even him to control. The rumors of a Super Saiyan appearing from within the Saiyan ranks especially irked Frieze to no end. However, now everything that ailed him is gone he could finally go back to ruling his galactic empire in peace. Anxiety is terrible for the skin after all and Frieza being the perfectionist that he is could not afford for his purple skin to loose its unique smoothness.

"Haha, I'm feeling unusually cheery Zarbon," Frieza informs his sycophant follower. "Why don't we celebrate this momentous occasion with a drink. Go and tell one of the servants to bring two glasses along with my favourite beverage. I want you to join me for a toast. It's not everyday that an entire species is eradicated by my hand."

"Yes my Lord I will see to it at once," Zarbon said in a loving tone reserved for the emperor.

As Zarbon left his side, Frieza commences to hum at feeling the joy of extinguishing so many lives at once. "I don't think I will ever grow tired of this feeling. Now there are no more Saiyans left in this universe to challenge me. Let us hope that damned cat is pleased that I did his bidding for him. Not that's what I call killing two birds with one stone." Frieza continues his humming unaware that a certain Saiyan had survived the explosion of his planet, and is headed towards a world that had no idea of the impending doom approaching it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:** First Impressions

A pack of Beowolves roamed idly across the harsh terrain of Mistral feeling an inexplicable desire to keep moving in the direction they were going in. There were no human or faunus settlements nearby and yet the Beowolves kept on ambling towards the location where a strange object had crashed from the sky a short while ago. The object in question had created a gigantic-sized crater upon impact, which had destroyed everything in the vicinity. The object of interest still lay at the epicenter of the crash site as the pack of Beowolves moved in around the edges of the crater.

Due to the depth of the crater, the Beowolves were unsure of how to advance until a hissing sound was heard emanating from the object. Suddenly the object opened from the outside as the Beowolves continued to watch the spectacle unfold in front of them. Grimm are a species naturally drawn towards negative emotions, and they could almost feel themselves shrouded in negativity upon arriving at the crash site.

Suddenly, they noticed some movement coming from within the object. A hand grasped the outside of the object and slowly the rest of the body attached to the hand pulled itself outside. The Beowolves could see that this creature looked like their usual prey but for some reason they were still hesitant to attack. Maybe it was due to the sheer amount of negativity projected from this creature. It was not the usual negative feelings such as envy, sadness, loneliness or hate. The best way to describe this emotion would be callous indifference. This creature seemed to be unaffected by his surroundings, almost as if everything was beneath its notice. The creature then looked up and locked his eyes on to the pack of Beowolves. Alarmingly, the Beowolves felt an unfamiliar force push them back slightly. Now soulless the Beowolves may be, but they could tell that this creature did not seem like something worth trifling with.

A couple of the more younger risk taking Beowolves decided to try their luck and leapt down into the crater hoping to get rid of this strange creature.

Just when they thought they were close enough to strike, a force hurled them backwards; similar to the force they had felt earlier but with the pressure intensified tenfold. The collision with the walls of the crater killed both Beowolves instantly, as their corporeal forms evaporated into thin air. The remaining Beowolves braced themselves for an attack that never came. Instead of running towards them like some of their prey did when defending itself, this creature calmly walked towards the pack. The Beowolves kept watching warily as the creature kept on coming closer. Having just seen the result of their brethren's tangle with the creature the Beowolves decided it would be safer to retreat in this instance.

Turning around they started bolting away from the crater until to their horror the creature materialized in front of them. Coming to halt the Beowolves were dumbfounded as no prey had ever pursued them after they had retreated. Not knowing how to proceed, the Beowolves stood hunched over in dread until they saw a bright yellowish light appear in the hand of the creature. The magnitude of the light began to increase until it matched the size of the creature producing it. The pack started to slowly back away, feeling an apprehension they never knew existed within them until now.

"So you do feel fear" the creature spoke. "Now die!"

The creature hurdled the energy blast at the Beowolves who did not even have time to let out a roar of pain before dying on the spot. Nothing of the pack remained after the blast had cleared, as the creature was left disappointed at how anti-climatic the whole affair had been.

Feeling angry with himself on having wasted his time dealing with such weak creatures, Vegeta clasped his hands around the back of his head and started the short walk back to his space-pod. Upon reaching the crater, Vegeta quickly slid down the slope and reached the entrance to his pod. Stepping inside he went over to the central computer and opened up the main screen to check which planet he was on currently. To his shock, the computer showed the planet to be uncharted territory and therefore had no other relevant information to share besides some rudimentary readings detailing the composition of the atmosphere. In addition, the screen showed that the time elapsed since the pod has been on its voyage to be 6 months.

Cursing Nappa for his folly at sending him to some random backwater planet, Vegeta searched for the statistic displaying the pod's fuel readings. In keeping with his luck, Vegeta found the fuel gauge showing that the pod is low on fuel. Staring at the information displayed on the screen Vegeta knew that he would be stranded on this planet unless he finds some fuel for the journey.

Letting out a sigh of frustration Vegeta decides to explore his surroundings further in the hopes that he can find some intelligent life form inhabiting this world, and force them into providing him with a fuel source so that he has the option of escaping from here in case if a life-threatening situation should arise. Although he cannot help but not feel too optimistic, judging from the kind of creatures he has already encountered on this world.

Before he can go ahead and carry out his plan, Vegeta notices a scouter lying on the floor of his pod. Making a dart for it, he grabs and fits it over his ear and turns it on. The scouter beeps on and starts booting up its functions one by one while Vegeta waits impatiently. The scouter gives another beep indicating it's ready for use. Vegeta hurriedly attempts to contact anyone who might be within the scouter's communication range. Growling at getting no response Vegeta slams the scouter on to floor before reluctantly reaching down to retrieve it knowing that it could still prove to be useful.

With the scouter proving to be a false hope, Vegeta realizes the actuality of his situation. He is all alone on an unexplored planet with no means of leaving. Even though Vegeta was a loner by nature, he could feel the tendrils of isolationism begin to creep up on him. 'I wonder if anyone from Planet Vegeta is still alive' Vegeta thought to himself in an effort to distract himself from his predicament. 'Probably not, knowing how sadistic the prick Frieza is.'

Vegeta's father had explained the situation earlier to him; afterwards informing him of his plan to send his son away from the reach of the evil emperor. Vegeta recalled seeing the look of finality on his father's face, as if he had accepted his fate that he would not survive the encounter with Frieza. 'If Frieza was willing to slaughter the King of Saiyans, then leaving behind any survivors who could potentially seek retribution would be foolhardy,' Vegeta thought grimly. Not that anyone from his race could measure up to the tyrant in terms of raw power but still. Vegeta was already aware of the gulf in class that existed between the Saiyans and the Arcosian Prince and one day he hoped to bridge that divide.

All of sudden, Nappa's decision to send him to this place began to make sense. The Saiyans did not have any allies in the universe who would be willing to aid him in standing up against Frieza, and would have most likely turned him over in exchange for gaining a few favours from Frieza. Going to any explored planet that was deserted was also not an option as there was always a chance that someone from Frieza's army or his many loyalists might find him there. By rationalizing his situation, Vegeta felt a sense of calm wash over him as he could feel the earlier hopelessness in his mind begin to recede. He was a Saiyan and he would do whatever he needed to in order to survive the circumstances that fate had placed before him.

Noting that it would not be long before he started to feel the pangs of hunger, Vegeta shut down the space-pod's computer and made his way to the exit. Not knowing when he would be able to find any sustenance and in the event he met any additional foes, Vegeta decided to conserve his energy and walk instead.

Trudging through the swamplands made for a rough journey as Vegeta had to deal with the wet and unstable ground, harsh sunlight and overall humidity that is associated with such regions. It was only due to his elite Saiyan training that Vegeta managed to forge ahead and not let this situation become too burdensome.

Having walked for hours and not finding any wildlife or edible substance, Vegeta decided to rest-up on a fallen tree log so that he could refresh his stamina. In the meantime, Vegeta hoped that the only wildlife that existed were not those creatures he had killed earlier, as they looked far from appetizing. As he recalled the events of earlier, it dawned on him that the two creatures that he had pushed away using his Ki onto the walls of the crater had just evaporated as if once they are killed they cease to exist. So he could not feast on them whether he wanted to or not.

Hearing noting but the sound of his own breathing, Vegeta deliberates taking to the sky in order to get a better sense of his bearings when he hears voices coming from the foliage behind him. Unable to sense anything, Vegeta makes his way cautiously to the clearing behind the shrubbery where he sees an open area with a group of people lounging around. The group contained a mix of female and males if Vegeta were to judge, and they all looked similar to him except for the lack of a tail on any of them. Some members of the group were sitting on a type of machine, which Vegeta assumed was presumably for transporting them around. Using his scouter Vegeta tried to get a reading on the power levels of the group. To his delight, the scouter did not pick up any power levels of significance.

Thinking that his job will go much easier, Vegeta walks nonchalantly into the group's camp. The group is startled to see a young boy walking towards them except he seemed to be exuding a kind of confidence, which they found to be unnerving.

Before anyone in his group could do something rash, the leader immediately gives instructions to his people to remain calm. The leader stares at the kid in front of him. Not only did he not seem disheveled from wandering alone in this environment, but the attire he was wearing also did not match the fashion of any place the leader had ever been to. The gadget over the kid's eye also perplexed the leader who had never seen such a device before. However, the most noticeable feature about the kid was his hair, which seemed to rise upwards forming a widow's peak.

Vegeta donned his trademark smirk before coming to a halt a few paces in front of the group. Looking around he could tell the group was wary of him and he had not even resorted yet to making any threats.

"So which one of you speaks for your kind," Vegeta inquired. The leader immediately fired-off, "I can only claim to do so for this group. The leader of our overall tribe is not here with us now. Anywas why is a kid like yourself wondering around these parts. Are you alone? Where is your family? Don't you know this area is infested with Grimm?"

"Grimm?" Vegeta frowned never having heard the term before.

"Have you been living under a rock? Don't you know what Grimm are kid, or did no one tell you about them?" the leader spoke. 'Although this kid living under a rock seemed unlikely, as the way he spoke screams upper class' the leader thought to himself. "They are creatures of death, their fur as black as the color itself, with haunting red eyes that begin to glow ominously as soon as they catch your scent. Handling one of them is simple but it's when they attack you as a group that they become terrifying. We try and avoid them most times unless absolutely necessary."

With his smirk growing ever wider, Vegeta could not believe his luck. These fools think that those creatures he ran into earlier were actually worth a challenge. He barely had to lift a hand to destroy that filth. 'I think I'm going to enjoy being the top dog around here.'

"Enough of the pleasantries then. I need you to take me to your tribe's leader. There is some important business I would like to discuss only with them."

A look of disbelief appeared on the leader's face. Just who was this kid. "I think you have this backwards, you don't get to ask us for anything. It is up to us to decide if bringing you along is worth our while. What do the rest of you think? Should we take him along with us or leave him here as cannon fodder for the Grimm."

"Come on Vajo you don't have to be an asshole. This is a kid we are talking about," said one of the female members of the group.

"I was just kidding sweet-heart even a thug like me has a heart," Vajo smiled. "Don't worry kid we wont leave you here as fodder for some nightmarish beasts. You can tag along with us. Ill leave to it our tribe's leader to determine what to do with you."

Vegeta starting to get a little frustrated at the way they were treating him as if he was helpless child, managed to retain his smirk.

"Well since my names out of the proverbial cat's bag why don't you share yours with us," Vajo requested.

"I was not asking for your permission to come, Vajo is it, I was informing you. Another thing, those creatures you so seem to fear so much that they make you want piss in fright are pitifully weak compared to me. Therefore, I would adopt a friendlier attitude towards me if I were you. Also, my name is too grand to be spoken from a plebeian tongue like yours."

Vegeta's remarks left everyone shell-shocked until Vajo began laughing uncontrollably. "Kid you have a funny sense of humor. That has to be the funniest thing I have heard today, and with the jokers that I work with you would not believe some of the shit I get to hear. In all seriousness though the Grimm are no joking matter so I would advise you be more humble when discussing them. I have lost a lot of friends to them over the years and in general they have been a source of great agony to our kind ever since we arrived in this world."

Vegeta struggled to maintain his composure at the sheer disrespect shown to the Prince of all Saiyans. "You have no idea what true agony is like you fool. However, since you seemed to be so concerned about these Grimm then let me show you the power I used to dispose of them." Raising his hands up, Vegeta unconsciously let his tail unwrap from his waist and fall down in anticipation of showing these peasants a mere fraction of his power.

Upon seeing his tail, the group were even more shocked. "Holy shit, are you a faunus" they asked him all at once. Vegeta not knowing what the word meant but recognizing the tone behind it yells out, "IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE AN INSULT. FINE I WAS GOING TO SHOW YOU A MERE FRACTION OF MY POWER AS A DEMONSTRATION BUT INSTEAD WHY NOT TAKE A GLIMPSE AT ALL OF IT. IT WILL THE LAST THING YOU WILL EVER SEE!"

As Vegeta began to draw forth his entire Ki, the wind around him and the group picked up speed until all of them were struggling to stay on their feet.

"Just what the hell is he doing Vajo? Is this his Semblance?" one of the group members shouted, struggling to be heard over the rising wind. Vajo could feel beads of sweat forming across his forehead. He had never come across someone with this much power at such a young age. Not only was the wind rising, the ground beneath them was starting to shake and Vajo could also see the rock strewn on the floor beginning to rise up around the kid as if it no longer obeyed the laws of gravity. 'Just what in the hell is he', Vajo thought to himself.

All of them could only look on in astonishment as an aura began to manifest itself around the kid, more tangible then anything either of them had ever seen; and continue to expand the more the kid kept on screaming. With Vegeta's rage so focused on those in front of him, he had left his backside completely unguarded. All of a sudden, someone fired a gunshot that struck him. The wind died down, the ground stopped shaking and all the rocks floating above the ground fell back down as time came to stand still.

No one dared move and only after a few moments had passed, did some of the spectator's crane their heads to see where the gunshot had originated. Vajo could feel a lump form in his throat as if he could no longer breathe since he recognized the sound of gunshot. It had come from his gun, and he knew the last person who had been in possession of his gun.

A high-pitched yelp was heard as the bushes parted to reveal a young girl. She came running out with a guilty look over her face while coming up behind her was another older member of the group struggling to match her pace.

"What did I tell you girl. Be careful when you pull that trigger!"

"I was just trying to fire a warning shot I did not mean for it to hit the kid," the girl retorted. Biting her lip, she looked at Vegeta who had not moved since being shot. Fearing that she may have injured the kid she walked tentatively towards him while speaking, "Listen I did not mean to shot you. I was trying to get you to stop doing whatever it is you were doing. Your aura must have stopped the brunt of the bullet so you should not be hurt too bad. Right?"

The girl came to halt a few paces beside Vegeta. Suddenly she clutched her hands over her mouth in a bid to stop her screams. A furry brown appendage was lying on the floor next to Vegeta; the gunshot had struck it clean off. Feeling herself going into a state of shock at the pool of blood forming behind Vegeta, the girl quickly yelled for the rest of her group members to help the kid. Vajo peered at the unmoving boy when suddenly he could see drips of blood falling onto the ground. Before he could rush over to help, he saw the boy tilt his head sideways to look at the girl next to him.

"You just hurt me," Vegeta spoke in a dangerous voice. The girl not knowing what to do felt tears begin to form in her eyes. "I'm sorry I was just trying to stop you from hurting my friends. Please let me help you."

As if suddenly remembering who he was, a fury began to build up inside of Vegeta who took it out on the unsuspecting victim next to him "You bitch you just cut my tail off. Does it look like I need your help? Do you know who I am, my name is …," and suddenly Vegeta collapsed onto the ground face first. The trauma of losing his tail, lack of sustenance coupled with the days earlier events finally taking their toll on him.

Unable to react the bizzare events happening in front of her, the girl could only stare in disbelief until Vajo ran up to her. "You okay?" The girl did not react to his question until Vajo placed a comforting arm on her shoulder. "Listen let us take it from here. Don't worry about the kid Aerin, you might just have saved everyone's life here for what its worth. That kid looked like he was about to murder us."

Aerin wordlessly looked up at Vajo with a morose face before glancing back down at Vegeta. Vajo knelt beside Vegeta and checked his pulse to make sure he was dead. However, to his surprise, Vegeta was not actually dead; Vajo could feel a weak and irregular pulse still beating inside of him. Putting on a smile in an attempt to arouse Aerin from her stupor even though he wanted to do anything but, Vajo exclaimed, "He's still alive Aerin but just barely. Let us take him back to our tribe, its not too far from here. Hopefully our leader Raven will know what to do with him so give me a hand will you."

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**A/N:** Chapter 3 will be up in about a week's time so keep your eye out for that. As always, appreciate any kind of feedback and if you enjoy this story so far then don't forget to follow or whatever suits your fancy.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:** A Raven's Nest

Vegeta opened his eyes groggily, as if waking up after having spent time in a recuperation chamber except that in this case he did not feel revitalized. Groaning, Vegeta tried to force himself to move but his limbs refused to obey him. Giving up, he instead tried to recall his last memory.

A series of images flashed through his head but he was unable to discern anything concrete. Deciding to wait for his memory to return to him, Vegeta suddenly realized that he was lying down on a comfortable material of some sort, and instead of sky above him, there was a roof.

Seeing as he was somehow now indoors, Vegeta frantically racked in brains in a bid to retrieve his memory when he noticed something in his peripheral vision. As Vegeta turned his head sideways, he noticed a young female sitting on a chair with her head resting on the table in front of her. She had short black hair with long bangs falling across her face and a light-brown complexion. Moreover, she was wearing a white long sleeve shirt with white pants. Over the shirt, she wore a dark leather corset along with handmade brass buckles and long boots the same color as the corset.

Vegeta could make out the steady rise and fall of her body with each inhale and exhale, suggesting that she must have been sitting with him for quite some time to fall into such a deep sleep. The image of the young female before him caused Vegeta's memories to come flooding back to him.

_Him landing on this planet…confronting those creatures….meeting that group in the swamp…him threatening to exterminate the group...his tail getting shot off…. the young female who had shot him standing next to him… _

Determining that there was a huge chunk of time between then and waking up now in this place that he count not account for, Vegeta ascertained that he must have been unconscious during that period. Feeling slightly ashamed of himself at the vulnerability he must have portrayed, Vegeta decided to take out his frustrations on the only person currently next him.

"WAKE UP!" Vegeta tried yelling out in his usual menacing voice, but with his throat quite parched it was unable to have the desired effect. However, the noise created did at least manage to wake the young female whose eyes fluttered open as she stared at the Saiyan Prince. Vegeta noted that her eyes were bright teal colored.

"Did you say something? Anyway at least you finally woke up, I was beginning to worry," she looked at him in concern.

Vegeta growled in reply at the way she was treating him as if he was some child. He was the Prince of all Saiyans dammit. "As if a wound like that would be enough to kill me, however what was the weapon you used that managed to injure me?" Feeling slight off-put at the way he was treating her, Aerin decided to ignore his rude behaviour seeing as how she was the one who had put him in this state in the first place.

"Oh you're talking about the gun I was using. It's pretty awesome and it uses Dust bullets but unfortunately it belongs to Vajo who only let me borrow it so that I could practice with it. I have trained using his weapon before a couple of times although I think I still need to practice my aim a bit more wouldn't you agree," she laughed sheepishly at the last part.

"Dust bullets?"

"You don't know about Dust. Oh yeah Vajo was telling me that you did not even know what Grimm were. How is that even possible, I have never met anyone who did not know what they were?" Vegeta feeling frustrated at the girl's ramblings was about to interject when Aerin noticed him getting agitated.

"Anyway, to answer your question I was using rounds that contained Dust which is a form of energy. It has many uses, especially in combat. There are different types of Dust each with their own characteristics such as Red Dust which produces fire, Blue Dust which produces water/ or ice, Yellow Dust which produces lightning and so on…"

Vegeta absorbed this information rapidly while Aerin continued speaking, "so I hope that satisfies your curiosity about Dust. So why were you all alone in the swamp? Where is your family? I'm sure they must be searching for you. Judging from the kind of clothes that you are wearing you would definitely stand out. Is this how they dress where you are from?"

Vegeta having grown tired of this conversation felt that his best option would be to make a swift exit. Managing to force himself to sit upright, Vegeta then brought his legs over onto the floor and pushed himself slowly off the bed. Startled at seeing the boy in front of her already trying to walk after having gone through such an ordeal, Aerin leapt forward to force him to lay back down. Noticing the female making a move as if to try to stop him, Vegeta gave her one of his infamous glares, which immediately stopped her in her tracks.

"Don't even think about touching me. I may not be even 25% fully healed but even in this state, I can easily break both of your arms, "Vegeta threatened her.

"Hey you don't have to be so rude. I was only trying to help you," said Aerin stunned at his remarks. "Hah, help me aren't you the one that did this to me," Vegeta rudely reminded her.

"It was an accident and I only shot you because you were threatening my friends. They are the only family that I have so of course I was going to try to protect them. Also, why did your aura not save you from the bullet's impact?" Vegeta looked at her as if he no longer cared for what she was saying, and took a few tentative steps to make sure that he did not fall down again in front of this female.

Realizing that his cape was missing, Vegeta looked around until he saw it hanging from a wooden peg stand. Feeling irked at the thought of having such low-class beings touch him while he was unconscious; Vegeta went over, grabbed his cape and fastened it on his shoulders.

Seeing that he could cope with the strain of this light physical exertion, Vegeta walked towards the exit while ignoring Aerin's protestations in the hopes that he could find someone less annoying.

Just as he reached the exit, an older female appeared in front of him. She had tan-colored skin, short brown hair and icy blue eyes. "You are already awake? I was just coming to check up on both you and Aerin," the stranger spoke as she stood blocking the exit.

"Who the hell are you and who the hell is Aerin?" Vegeta inquired in an offensive manner. Amused at his reaction the stranger replied, "So you are that type huh. My name is Vernal and the girl who was sitting at your bed-side for these past three days is Aerin, whom you should to show a bit more gratitude towards." Startled at hearing that he had been out of commission for three days, Vegeta quickly covered up his surprise at this revelation with his trademark sneer. "I don't owe anyone a damn thing. If anything you all should be on your knees thanking me for not ending your lives at this instance," Vegeta exclaimed.

Instead of being threatened, Vernal let out a slight chuckle at the antics of the young boy before her, "my you are quite amusing aren't you. If it wasn't for us you would have become a nice snack for the Grimm that roam these parts." Vegeta snarled at Vernal but was unable to contradict her, seeing as what she said was accurate. Noticing the boy unable to rebuff her words Vernal grinned and carried on speaking, "relax I was only teasing junior. You do look quite cute when you're at a loss for words though but let's continue this conversation in front of our leader. She has been very eager to meet her guest seeing as we hardly get any."

Having said her piece, Vernal beckoned Vegeta to follow her as she exited the tent. Vegeta on the other hand did not move an inch, as he was too busy ruminating on what had just occurred. The sheer disrespect shown to the Prince of Saiyans angered him to such a degree that he could feel his Ki start to rise dangerously, while concurrently he felt light-headed due to the sudden on-rush of adrenaline in his weakened state. While Vegeta struggled to keep himself steady on his feet, he felt a hand placed timidly on his shoulder. Vegeta turned around and looked at Aerin in disbelief. Thinking that she might have over-stepped her boundaries, an embarrassed look appeared on her face as she swiftly removed her hand from his shoulder.

"Sorry about that I did not mean to touch you without your permission. I saw that your feet were becoming slightly wobbly so I wanted to help keep you steady just in case," she explained. Not receiving any response from Vegeta, Aerin took it as a good sign if her short experience with him had taught her anything so far.

"Also don't mind Vernal she can seem very weird at first, but once you get to know her she becomes more tolerable," Aerin said in an attempt to lighten the mood. However, Vegeta not being one for humor shook himself out of his lethargy; turned and walked away leaving Aerin perplexed. However, being the narcissist that he was, Vegeta could not help himself as he tried to have the last word in any conversation, "what you said regarding the older female is what I thought when I first met you except that in your case you come across as more annoying than weird." Vegeta smirked to himself as he walked out of the tent leaving Aerin in a huff.

The glare of the sunlight strained Vegeta's eyes when he stepped out into the open. Placing a hand in front of himself Vegeta suddenly become aware of the activity going on around him as he observed people running about busy with their day's tasks. Moreover, he observed that everyone was eyeing him warily and giving him suspicious looks as he walked passed them. Not knowing where he was supposed to go, Vegeta glanced around for Vernal when he noticed one of the grunts walking up to him nervously while loudly chewing something.

"Vernal said you are supposed to head over to our leader's tent. It's that massive one over there in the center. You had better hurry as you don't want to keep those two ladies waiting. Trust me." Having delivered Vernal's message, the grunt spat the contents of his mouth onto the ground and briskly walked away. Vegeta stared incredulously at the receding grunt, as he could not believe that the revolting looking red-paste he had spat out had been in his mouth. Looking away in disgust, Vegeta quickly made his way to the tent that the grunt had pointed out so that he would not have to interact with anyone else.

The guards posted in front gave him a cursory glance before allowing him to enter. Stepping inside he noticed Vernal talking to another women while sitting on cushions around a wooden table on the floor.

Seeing that someone was within their midst, both women ceased talking and glanced up at Vegeta. Vernal's mouth slowly curled into a grin on seeing the young boy, while the other women continued to stare impassively at Vegeta. This new women's appearance slightly threw Vegeta off. Her long dark hair stretched all the way below her waist. Her outfit consisted of a shallow cut black and red dress. Her forearms bore red armored gauntlets that protruded outwards and solid black gloves. She wore black mid-thigh leggings with red splatter patterns and black heels. It was her eyes however, that caught Vegeta's attention the most. He could see his reflection in the bright red pools of blood that stared at him. On the floor beside her lay a sword inside of a sheath. Vegeta immediately assessed that this women could be potentially dangerous as she reminded him of the Saiyan women that went off to do battle.

Ignoring the looks both women were giving him, he went and sat down on one of the spare cushions. Vernal growing ever amused at the boy's discourteous personality remained silent and waited for her leader, Raven to commence the proceedings. With Vernal having forewarned her about their guest's disposition, Raven did not mind Vegeta's behaviour and continued to stare at the young boy seeing if he would buckle under the intensity of her gaze. However, to her surprise the boy did not break off eye contact and stared back at her with the same if not greater intensity. Finding herself smirking, Raven decided to end their little staring contest, "so you must excuse me if my skills as a hostess are not up to par as we do not receive many guests but I'll try to do the best that I can. I can see that you are quite young but Vernal informed me that you seem quite mature for your age. So I won't be talking down to you and you will just have to keep up with whatever I'm going to say," Raven pauses and checks to see if he is paying attention. Observing that she has her guest's undivided attention, Raven continues speaking:

"Anyway, let's get the introductions out of the way. My name is Raven and I'm the leader of this community. Vernal who you already met is my most trusted confidant. I will not go into the details of how we met but just know that she has been my loyal aide for many years. Before we go any further it would be remiss of me not to ask if you would you like to have some food or beverage after your 'long sleep'."

Vegeta's pride wanted to refuse this women's offer, not liking the fact that he would be beholden to her. However, he could feel how weak he had become and some nourishment would aid him in recovering his lost strength. Vegeta opened his mouth to reply, when his stomach decided to answer for him and let out a low rumble that everyone sitting around the table heard.

Vernal did not even try to contain herself and let out a small bark of laughter while even a rare smile manage to ghost its way onto Raven's mouth. Vegeta on the other hand tried to look furious at the reaction of the two females in front him, but could not complain as his stomach had adequately answered on his behalf. Deciding that as a host, she should try to lessen her guest's embarrassment, Raven gave orders to Vernal to ask one of their people to bring some fare for them to have. Vernal left to issue Raven's order, leaving just the two of them inside the tent.

With the brief moment of levity over, Raven went back to her usual stoic self, which Vegeta noticed. Seeing that she was watching at him as if waiting for him to speak Vegeta spat his retort at her since he was still feeling somewhat embarrassed over the earlier situation, "what are you looking at?"

"You know it is customary for someone to share their name when the person that they are having a conversation with has already provided them theirs," Raven replied sarcastically. "My name is Vegeta, and lady you had best remember it because I don't like to repeat myself," said Vegeta scowling as he crossed his arms over chest.

"Hmm…such an unusual name. Then again, everything about you is unusual. Tell me is it true, as my associates informed me earlier, that you are a faunus?"

That word again Vegeta thought to himself. "I have no idea what a faunus is and I am definitely not one so I would refrain from making any assumptions if I were you," Vegeta replied in a serious tone.

"I thought as much, although I had to make sure since you had similar features to the faunus that live in this world."

"So why don't you end the mystery and just tell me what the hell is a faunus," Vegeta smartly shot back.

"Faunus are similar to humans except that they share certain traits with animals. They can only have a single physical trait in common with their animal. Also faunus will also possess other non-physical traits of the animals that they are based on such as their food preference etc.," Raven answered in a mechanical voice.

"So you thought I was some type of animal!" Vegeta uncrossed his arms as he could feel his temper flaring. "Calm down," Raven replied uncaring of his outburst. "It was natural to assume that you might have been a faunus given that you had a tail, although I knew even before asking that you could not have been a faunus."

Vegeta inquired, "So why did you even bother asking, and what made you reach the conclusion that I was not one?"

"I just had to make sure. As to what made me come to this conclusion: one, your clothing which I have never seen worn by either the humans or faunus of this world; two, when we managed to start the device that you were wearing over your eye some strange language appeared that no one could decipher; lastly the fact that you did not even know what Grimm were, suggests that you are not from Remnant." Raven shrugged to herself, "it was elementary really."

Vegeta did not bother responding to her pandering and maintained his stony expression. "To be honest I don't really care what you are or where you came from," Raven said as she moved in closer and placed her elbows on the table with her chin resting on top of her hands. "However, the reports I received from my people made me very interested to know of the kind of power residing within you. It's not easy to scare someone like Vajo, and yet he almost looked petrified of you when he brought you back here. I'm assuming young Aerin had something do with that," Raven said as an after thought.

Vegeta smiled on hearing the effect that he had had on her people. At least someone showed him the correct measure of fear and respect that he felt he deserved. Although he felt puzzled on hearing that, the young female was responsible for bringing him back to her tribe. Vegeta was unsure of how he should react to this news.

Sensing that maybe he needed further reassurance, Raven sought to soothe any doubts he might still have, "when you were brought here you were bleeding from a hole on your backside that I assume is where your tail was located. So, as a gesture of goodwill we cleaned your wound, stitched you up and gave you some of our precious medicine to deal with any infection that you might have caught as a result of loosing your appendage."

Vegeta scoffed at her attempts to placate him. Raven however pushed on with her agenda. "Even though we might have been responsible for your predicament, know that we just could have just have easily left you on your own when you were unconscious. These days you have to be cautious when placing your trust in people and you are a completely unknown quantity. Moreover, we rarely allow outsiders into our home, as we like to keep this location a secret. You should feel quite privileged."

As Raven finished her dialogue, Vernal walked in with Aerin clinging to her heels. "This one refused to let me go unless I brought her along with me. I hope you don't mind," Vernal said with a heavy sigh as she sat down. "The more the merrier. Aerin here played an important part in the outsider arriving in our home. She might have still a role to play in his story," Raven replied cryptically.

Aerin not one to enjoy being the center of attention blushed furiously under the gaze of all three persons sitting around the table. Vegeta still thinking about what Raven said to him about Aerin earlier gave her a distrustful glance. "So while you were away Vernal, our guest and I had an enlightening chat. Turns out his name is Vegeta and he will be assisting us to repay back the debt he owes us for saving his life won't he," Raven spoke while looking directly at him.

Vegeta was about to thunderously refuse when the truth of her words hit him. It was true what Raven had said that they could have just as easily left him out there to die. Not only had they saved him, but also they had fixed him up and allowed him time to heal while he had been nothing but a burden. Being beholden to anyone rubbed Vegeta the wrong way, as his pride would not allow it. Before he could provide an answer, the fare that Raven had requested Vernal to arrange arrived.

The smell coming from the food wet Vegeta's appetite to such an extent that he struggled to keep himself from gorging it immediately. As the meal was being set before them, Raven observed how restless her guest had become. Realizing that he was probably starving, Raven granted him permission to begin eating. Not needing to be told twice, Vegeta hurriedly dug into the fare set before him, as the other three watched in astonishment as everything kept disappearing down Vegeta's gullet. Afraid to come in between him and his frenzy, the rest of them just drank their tea silently as they watched the whirlwind that was Vegeta sweep up all the food towards him. Before any of them had finished with their tea, Vegeta emitted a loud burp indicating that he was done.

The three women glanced at the table and then back at Vegeta. All the food on the table had been devoured, while Vegeta nonchalantly used his finger to pick the food stuck in between his teeth unaware of the turmoil going through the women's heads. Vegeta stopped mid-way as he could feel several eyes gawking at him, and turned to see the disbelieving expressions on all three women's faces. "What you knew how hungry I was," Vegeta remarked haughtily.

Raven decided to break the cloud of incredulity hanging over them. "Well Vegeta if you fight anything like you eat then I welcome you with open arms. I'll give you some time to make your decision on whether or not you will join us. Know that I am not a patient person so you had best come to a decision quickly. I'm sure you'll make the right one."

Not liking the tone in which she phrased that statement, Vegeta got up and stormed out of the tent before Raven could dismiss him. "Go with him Aerin and see that he does not get into too much trouble, Vernal and I have some other things that we need to discuss." Thanking Raven for allowing her to join their meeting, Aerin hurriedly left to catch up with Vegeta.

"So what do you think. Is he worth keeping around?" Vernal asked still in a daze from having seen the Saiyan's voracious appetite.

"It's still too early to judge and I need to get a better grasp of his power before I can say definitively. However, just by looking at him at him I can tell that he would make a terrible foe. So it's better to keep him on our side for the time being."

"You actually think he will join us?" Vernal raised an eyebrow looking at Raven.

"At least for the moment. The amount of pride that one has, it must physically pain him to have to be indebted to someone. Anyway, as I was saying we still need to get a measure of his power even though the testimony we got from Vajo's team was encouraging. I was putting this off until more of our people returned from their respective missions, but it seems that an opportunity has arisen that we cannot waste. You will be leading a team of your choosing which will of course also include Vegeta to pay a visit to Schion village. I am sure you can guess as to the nature of this visit and what your role will be."

"Affirmative. I'll round up the team including Vegeta. We'll head out by tomorrow night. Hopefully by then he would have given us his favorable 'decision'."

"Oh I'm sure of it," Raven purred.

**A/N: **So I enjoyed reading all the reviews I have received so far. Keep them coming as they can only help improve me as a writer. Also in case any of you were wondering the ages of Vegeta and Aerin (O.C), they are as follows:

Vegeta - 10 years old

Aerin - 12 years old


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